Tara Donovan (American, born 1969). Untitled (Mylar), 2007. Mylar and glue, 30 x 248 x 203 inches (76.2 x 629.9 x 515.6 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift of Mrs. Georgia M. G. Forman, by exchange, 2008 (2008:19a-x).
The series of projects I developed with Mylar was a part of an investigation of materials with certain physical traits that can somehow be activated outside of the material or object itself. Transparency and reflectivity are important because these traits are responsive in the sense that they can amplified or subdued according to the light conditions around them. These traits encourage a type of chameleonic masking effect that occurs with a quantitative accumulation of the material to which they are attached. The Mylar installation evolved by experimenting with how to use the reflective material volumetrically in order not only to create a seductive object but also to attempt to fracture the optical depth of field upon close viewing.
Artist statement, May 2016
